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Polish MP conducts migrant ‘experiment’ in London

MP Artur Debski works construction job in London to understand why more and more Poles are moving to the U.K.

Polish MP Artur Debski, who lived like a migrant in London, has been accused of staging a political stunt. (LEON NEAL / AFP/Getty Images)

By Graham LanktreeSpecial to the Star

Tues., April 29, 2014

LONDON—For a few weeks earlier this month, Polish MP Artur Debski couch surfed and demolished walls with a construction crew to slip into the skin of legions of emigrants from his country now living in the U.K.

On April 5 the MP for Poland’s centre-left Twoj Ruch (Your Movement) party arrived in London with a small bag, cellphone, iPad and a £100 (about $185) weekly budget. His mission: divine why 10 times more Poles live in the U.K. today than when Poland joined the European Union in 2004.

“In Poland, we have a very big problem with 70 per cent of young people thinking about emigration,” Debski said steps from a crowded job centre in east London.

Inside, he stood in line to register for a U.K. National Insurance Number. He had received his first £285 ($525) paycheque — the sum of a week of part-time work in construction and as an assistant in an accounting firm’s office.

The £100 Debski budgeted was not nearly enough to survive on. “It’s not possible. You must eat, you must sleep, you must walk to work!” he said. “Everything is very expensive. You must have £300 minimum for one week,” he added. “Back in Poland, I will tell these young guys that this is very dangerous, you must be thinking.”

The trend, he said, is also dangerous for Poland’s demographics, since more people died in the country in 2013 than were born. Membership in the EU means they can settle in any country that is part of the 28-nation organization. Last year, a total of 679,000 Polish nationals had settled in the U.K., with 63,000 emigrating between 2011 and 2012.

“It’s not easy to come to England,” said Dominik Janas, 33, who followed his girlfriend to London in 2005, “but it’s harder to survive in Poland.” Fellow Polish emigrants, he said, “come for a better life.”

Young workers back home make, on average, 1,300 Polish zloty ($470) monthly, he notes. “They need to pay for their house, pay for their car, pay for life,” he said, adding that wages have been stagnant for the last nine years while the price of goods has grown.

Janas funded his move by selling his automotive business — purchasing cars in Germany and Holland and trading them in Poland. After arriving in London, his first job was in a Tesco supermarket warehouse.

Within five years, he had saved enough to get back into business and opened a printing company. He now offers PR for other Polish businesses.

On paper, Poland’s economy has been doing well. Since 2000 the country has “achieved levels of income and quality of life likely never experienced before,” according to an Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economic survey published in March. The 26.9 per cent unemployment rate for young workers is far from where it stood in 2005, at 40 per cent.

Yet somewhat better times are not driving a return to Poland. The report concludes broad reforms of everything from child care to public employment services are needed to reverse the flow.

Debski ran the “experiment” in London to come away with some ideas on how to make those changes.

His experiment has been criticized in Poland as a political stunt a year-and-a-half ahead of the election, calculated to increase Your Movement’s 10 per cent share of the vote.

“Politicians in Poland don’t understand the idea of this experiment,” he said. “Yes, this is a provocation. But I must start to talk with the government. This is a very good start to the discussion.”

Britain’s system, from health care to setting up a business, is what keeps emigrants in the U.K., said entrepreneur Darius Kravitz.

After arriving from Poland in 2000, Kravitz opened The Legends Barber Shop in central London six years ago. He said it would have been much more difficult to get the business off the ground back home.

The U.K. government wants to help you to start a business, Kravitz said. “Here they say, ‘Hi, how can I help?’ where in Poland they say, ‘What do you have for me?’” In the U.K., self-employed startup owners pay £12 ($22) a month in National Insurance, he said, where in Poland they pay £200 ($370) monthly.

Health care in the U.K., Debski learned, is a deal-breaker for many considering a return to Poland. “In London the doctor is free. For children up to 16 years you don’t pay for medicine at the pharmacy,” he said. “In Poland you pay for it all. This national medicine is very good.”

Kravitz, however, is not convinced Debski’s experiment will make much headway with Poland’s parliament. “It’s like a chorus of birds,” he said. “You all need to be singing the same chorus for anyone to listen.”

Debski returned to Poland last week and is back in parliament spreading the word about his trip. Last week, his party proposed the creation of a bipartisan parliamentary panel to study emigration and ways to prevent it, including a higher minimum wage and lower taxes for start-ups.

Debski admits it’s a slow process, “but we must start.” It won’t happen in one or two years, he said, but maybe in 10.

“For me it is an experiment,” Debski adds, “but for young people it is to be or not to be in Poland.”

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